So Meta/Facebook apparently used millions of books to train its AI model without the permission of the authors or publishers. These aren’t even books they purchased, but books they illegally downloaded. I’ve known about this for a few weeks (and apparently the story first broke back in January), but The Atlantic has a tool to see if a book has been stolen.

And lo and behold The Witch and the Rose is in there.

It’s honestly frustrating how a major company like this can just blatantly violate copyright law. It’s not only copyrighted content, but stolen copyrighted content. We spent the last several decades with major companies going after people for piracy, and a company run by a billionaire can just casually get away with it. And from all reports, this is something Zuckerberg himself authorized.

I am, frankly, deeply frustrated.

Look, I have a nuanced opinion on generative AI. I think there are good applications when its created using ethically sourced training data — but the fact is literally none of the commercial products out there right now are. People keep trying to use it for everything, and companies keep shoehorning it into every product. But, like, you should not be using ChatGPT to get “answers” to questions because generative AI doesn’t actually understand what its saying. Large language models are literally fancy autocomplete, and it can “hallucinate” some wild stuff. You cannot trust anything it produces.

I hate that it’s called “AI,” because it leads folks to think something deeper is happening behind the scenes. But its not. Image generation is more interesting on a technical level, but again — none of the image generators available right now are trained on ethically sourced data.

Frankly, generative AI in all of its forms is trained on other people’s work, so (what we’re pretending is) AI can never truly produce a real work of creativity. It’s all derivative schlock. And if we lived in a world where it was built honestly and ethically, it could be useful for things like rapid prototyping and brainstorming.

But we don’t live in that world.

So don’t use it.

And fuck Meta, Facebook, and Mark Zuckerberg for stealing my book.

On April 26th I’m going to be at Concinnity in Milwaukee, WI! Stop on by and say hi if you’re in town!

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I love living in Wisconsin. I really do. I love living just south of the 29 divide between “up north” and the rest of the state. I love living in a smaller city too — all the advantages of civilization, but I can get myself either into the woods or into the countryside within five to ten minutes depending on the direction I pick.

But I do hate one thing: the fucking deer.

That’s right, this is a blog post where I complain about deer. There is no metaphor here or deeper meaning. Anyone who has talked to me for an extended period of time about the damned animals won’t be surprised by anything I say here, and this isn’t code for anything else. This is literally just about deer.

I don’t think people who live in places without deer understand how fundamentally annoying they are to live around. And, y’know, it’s my own fault — I chose to live where the deer are. It is very much on me that I have this problem. But it’s still a problem.

Yesterday morning, on the way home from the grocery store, on the most suburban looking street you’ve ever seen, I had to slam on brakes because a deer ran out into the street. Off to the side of the road were at least five more, sitting there… waiting. And this was not the first time this has happened. Heck, it’s not the first time it’s happened in the last few weeks. It’s at least the fifth or sixth.

And I know they’re more active around dawn and dusk, and that I go to the store right around sunrise right now, but it’s still deeply annoying.

When the weather is nice, I like to take walks. Heck, when my knees like me I even go on runs. One day a few years ago, running through the local park, a deer ran out in front of me and I almost barreled right into it. I barely avoided hitting a deer on foot. Deer are incredibly dumb and skittish.

They’re like rabbits who can wreck your car.

It’s always amusing to me when I talk to people who don’t live around deer who always get excited or in awe when they see them up north. I used to feel like that when I was younger and hadn’t spent years annoyed with them. Now when I see a deer I just roll my eyes and pray they don’t decide to run into me.

There wasn’t really a point to this beyond expressing my annoyance with the white tailed wildlife denizens of the local woods. I mostly just wanted to complain about them, so I did. Was it a waste of time? Maybe.

But I do feel better about it now either way.

On April 26th I’m going to be at Concinnity in Milwaukee, WI! Stop on by and say hi if you’re in town!

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The weather has been on a roller coaster lately, just like it ends up every spring here in Wisconsin. For the last several weeks the temperatures have gotten nice and warm on Friday only to plunge back into the cold on Saturday. This week, with temperatures in the fifties, we’re finally having a nice Sunday. Spring never arrives all at once. It turns up for moments and then retreats.

Frankly, I think it’s just determined to mess with me.

I had a lovely time yesterday participating in the Critical Thinking Witch Collective‘s April Brew. I haven’t done anything with them since CritWitchCon 2022, and I’m so glad they asked me to join in for this event. They’ve asked if I wanted to do stuff a few other times, but I can get myself a bit overwhelmed in the fall when CritWitchCon comes around, so this was actually super nice. It helps that the topic was one I felt comfortable dropping in on without feeling like I needed to shore up my sources.

Because I’m neurotic like that and even if I know a topic backwards and forwards I’m not comfortable speaking on most of them in public without preparing five pages of notes. The secret to the podcast is that I can have my sources up on screen just next to my camera, so if I ever have any doubts, I can just see the original data. It’s hard to do that in an impromptu panel where the subject can go off in a different direction at any given moment.

Anyways, my particular flavor of crazy aside, it’s gorgeous out right now, so Crysta and I are thinking about taking a lovely drive in the country. It should be nice — the sun is shining, the weather’s lovely, and we have a full tank of gas. We used to take drives like this all the time, but have fallen out of the habit.

I think it will be lovely.

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So I’m finally in a good mood with yesterday’s electoral wins, so I thought I’d post about some fun stuff instead of how the world is on fire for once. As some of you know, I’ve been trying to slowly ease myself back into doing cons, and last year I did three. This year, as you recall, I already did Evercon last month, but that’s just the beginning of my calendar.

I have four more shows that are booked and locked for 2025 so far, with the likelihood of a fifth. So that means in total I will be doing about twice the number of cons in 2025 than I did in 2024. We’re effectively getting back to my pre-COVID schedule, even if the shows I’m booking are sometimes very different. It’s nice to get out there again though, to engage with folks, and to be a part of the community again.

Before we get to in person events, I want to remind folks that this Saturday morning, April 5th, I’m doing a virtual event with the Critical Thinking Witches’ Collective. For their April Brew, which starts at 11am Eastern/10am Central, I’ll be on a panel that should start about a half hour in with a few other folks where we’re going to talk about book publishing. You can register for free if you want to attend! It should be really fun.

Anyways, here’s my current schedule for the rest of the year (so far):

• Apr 26 Concinnity
  Milwaukee, WI MSOE – Diercks Hall
   
• Aug 2-3 Big Minneapolis Anime (Tabling w/ Ethan Flanagan)
  Minneapolis, MN Minneapolis Convention Center
   
• Aug 9-10 Anime 414
  Milwaukee, WI Baird Center
   
• Sep 13 Eau Claire Comic Con
  Eau Claire, WI Eau Claire Expo Center

I’m really excited for this schedule (and, again, I’m looking to add to it). Is it exactly what I wish I was doing? No – but it’s still pretty good so I’m definitely not complaining.

2020 was supposed to be my year of conventions, but obviously the world fell apart (and a lot of those shows didn’t survive). Ironically at the time I was looking to shift to promoting Nerd & Tie over just my own stuff (as UnCONventional had just wrapped), but I’ve since written multiple novels so I’ve been slipping back to myself. Ideally we’d be doing Nerd & Tie tables too, and I’m hoping to expand to that… but for now? It’s nice to find my footing again.

Wow it’s nice to feel occasionally hopeful.

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Tomorrow, April 1st 2025, we have a massively important State Supreme Court election here in the state of Wisconsin. It will decide the balance of the state supreme court, and it’s vitally important that we get Susan Crawford elected. Elon Musk has literally poured millions of dollars into Brad Schimel’s campaign, and we are fighting for our lives here. I’ve already voted, and if you haven’t yet and you live here… make sure you do.

But no matter what happens tomorrow, no matter what the result is, the fight is far from over. ICE agents are grabbing people off the streets, our public institutions are being systematically destroyed, and our international and diplomatic relations with historically close allies are just, honestly, fucked right now. Today is Trans Day of Visibility, and trans and queer rights have been under steady attack by the right. As a nonbinary person and member of the trans community, I’m genuinely scared for a lot of my friends right now.

But we fight. We stand up. We survive.

If we accept defeat, we are handing victory to those who want us dead. By living and fighting, we carry on to the next day and then the day after that. I know I posted it right after the election last November, but there’s a pretty famous Joe Hill quote everyone should keep in mind: “Don’t waste any time mourning. Organize!”

Go out, hug your friends. Build a local community if you can, and get involved in your local politics. Make sure you call your Reps and Senators every day if you can, and for pete’s sake fucking vote.

We can make it as long as we don’t stop fighting.

Remember that on April 5th at 11AM Eastern/10AM Central you can join me for the Critical Thinking Witches’ Collective’s April Brew virtual event! Attendance is free, and you can register here!

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It’s hard to tell how vulnerable to be on the internet anymore. How safe it it to be so exposed. Twenty years ago I’d just pour anything I was feeling into this space. While I filtered things for other people’s privacy, I never filtered my own feelings.

But I stopped at some point, and this turned into a place where I just promoted my projects and gave generic, general updates. It meant I posted less and less, and I know I’m trying to turn that around. When you make stuff like comics and books and try to talk about them and promote them online, there’s a pressure to be positive constantly. Like when you’re actively trying to provide paths for escapism for people, a lot of people get unhappy when you drag reality into things.

But things are stressful.

Sometimes we’re just holding ourselves together with tape and string, and hoping no one notices. Besides the massively important Wisconsin Supreme Court election on Tuesday (vote Crawford by the way), the outside world isn’t the only pressure. My grandmother is going into hospice, and that brings its own set of stuff. I’ve got a family of people who are all concerned about everyone else’s well being, and not enough people taking care of themselves.

And, like, for the record, I am fine. I will be fine. We have a lot of fighting to do, and I have no intention of giving up. But, like, shit is stressful, y’know? And I think it’s important to acknowledge that stress. I write these things not because I need support, but to acknowledge that they exist. To say “sometimes things are hard and we’re all human.”

Because we are.

And me move forward as best we can.

Remember that on April 5th at 11AM Eastern/10AM Central you can join me for the Critical Thinking Witches’ Collective’s April Brew virtual event! Attendance is free, and you can register here!

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So I’m just going to come out and say it: My favorite episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation is “Conundrum.” It’s episode fourteen of season five, and I just deeply love it.

I don’t know if it’s because I literally just assumed Erich Anderson’s Commander McDuff was a random Enterprise officer of the week (which we saw quite often during the show) when I watched it as a kid during the original run, so the twist actually worked on eleven year old me. I don’t know if it’s because I just like a good “everyone has amnesia” story. I don’t even know if it’s just because it’s a good Ro Laren episode. I don’t know if it’s just because we learn that Starfleet doesn’t give a crap about lasers.

I just like it. It’s neat.

And I rewatched it last night, and feel that it holds up — which is why I found it deeply weird that the folks who wrote the episode actually think it’s not that good. My favorite episode of the entire seven season run of the show was a failure according to the folks who wrote it.

And maybe, as a writer and creator, I should remember that.

Like the hardest part of releasing creative works to the public is that often, after a while, I’ll start to judge those things far more harshly than when I first made them. Or I’ll compare it to the potential I thought an idea had in my head. And if I don’t reach that potential, I’ll think of it as “bad” — when it might just be slightly different than that idea. I have one hundred percent published stories that I thought were just sort of okay and later had someone tell me how much it meant to them to read it.

*cough*I Hate November*cough*

So I should make sure I remember Conundrum. That one of my favorite things to rewatch is considered one of those failures by its creators. That the things I make might have value, just not in the way I originally thought they should.

It’s just sort of how things work out.

Remember that on April 5th at 11AM Eastern/10AM Central you can join me for the Critical Thinking Witches’ Collective’s April Brew virtual event! Attendance is free, and you can register here!

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So on April 5th at 11AM Eastern/10AM Central you can join me for the Critical Thinking Witches’ Collective’s April Brew virtual event. You can register for the event here, and it’s completely free.

I’m going to be on a panel that should start about fifteen minutes into the event, hosted by my friend Alex Wrekk (creator of the zine Brainscan and author of Stolen Sharpie Revolution). The other folks on the panel are Lane Smith (author of 78 Acts of Liberation: Tarot to Transform Our World) and Lee Cotman (author of The Good Enough Pagan Newsletter). We’re going to be talking about book publishing and demystifying the process of getting stuff into print.

I think it’s going to be fun time. I really like CTWC, but haven’t had the chance to do something with them since I was on a panel at CritWitchCon a few years ago. So when Alex asked me if I wanted to do this panel, I said yes as soon as I saw the message.

So yeah, join us and spend a Saturday morning listening to witches talk about books. It should be a good time.

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Nostalgia can hit you hard, and yesterday was certainly felt like a one two punch of it.

First off, I stopped by “Collector Con,” a small con held at the Lismore in downtown Eau Claire. For those of you know my history with conventions, you’d know that when that place was a Ramada it was home to No Brand Con for five years in the late 2000s. I was only there for an hour or so, but it was my first time back in that convention center since I was twenty-nine years old. Like literally the last time I was there was a month before Crysta and I moved to Indiana in 2010.

Which was almost exactly fifteen years ago.

It’s a strange thing to return to a place like that. The room felt smaller than I remembered it, but it’s largely unchanged for better or for worse. It makes me miss running No Brand Con in the space. It never really felt the same after the con moved out of Eau Claire, and even though it felt great that last year in Stevens Point, nothing compares to home sometimes I guess.

Afterwards, I headed over to a friend’s house to hang out with a bunch of old friends from my early twenties. A group of three of my friends (all named David) have been regularly getting together as “The Council of Davids” for dinner for a while, and they’ve started inviting more and more of us to join them. It was a lovely evening talking with old friends (some of whom I haven’t seen in years), a just being social was, frankly, nice.

I have spent the last chunk of my life being a bit of a shut in, and I didn’t use to be. I’m at heart a social being, and I think I need to train myself to have the energy to get out more again. I, believe it or not, am happier when I actually spend time around other humans.

It’s easy to forget when sitting at home is often so much easier.

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So in Wisconsin the April 1st Spring election is in less than two weeks, and it’s a doozy. It’s our first major election since the garbage fire that happened last November, and here in America’s Dairyland we have a massively impactful major race on the ballot: a State Supreme Court seat.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is currently held by the left by a single seat, so the outcome of this race will determine the balance of the court. On the left we have Susan Crawford, and on the right there’s Brad Schimel. While this is, in theory, is a nonpartisan election… let’s not kid ourselves. Nothing ever is anymore, especially when the stakes are as high as this one. It is vital that we elect Susan Crawford.

This court will make many decisions that affect our daily lives. This court is what will decide whether or not Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion ban is legal or not. This court will either stand up for Wisconsinite’s rights or bow to Trump’s every whim.

And Elon Musk is pouring millions into Schimel’s campaign. Whether this is because he’s doing so for ideological reasons or if it’s just because Tesla is going to have a case in front of the court soon is hard to tell, but either way a billionaire who’s likely barely set foot in the state thinks he gets to decide how we live our lives. He thinks he can buy this election.

But as far as I’m concerned, we’re not for sale.

So I beg you, if you live in Wisconsin make sure you vote. It’s so, so important. Frankly, elections like this have way more impact on people’s lives than they realize. Like also on this ballot is the State Superintendent, and it’s really important that we re-elect Jill Underly. And you probably have things like city council, school board, and other local races on your ballot.

Those local races dictate a lot about what happens in your community, and have a much larger impact on your daily life than you realize. Like the book bans you read about happening in some parts of the country? A lot of that happens at the city government level. Who’s on your local city council or school board is what makes the difference.

We always vote absentee, and I put our ballots in the mail today. I’ll be tracking it over on MyVote to make sure it arrives with our local clerk safely. I can’t emphasize how important this is and how vital it is we all show up on this one.

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